An old XL house bag yesterday
(don't ask me to draw the new one it's all artsy and swish - I reckon they called the designers in)

Some personal XL highlights

Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block TNXL 003
Seemingly out of step with the rest of the XL catalogue this single from September 1999 is a very good example of the broadening musical range XL have started to cater to. Released on 10" Vinyl and CD the title track is a whimsical indie tune more typical of parent label Beggar's Banquet, "Soul Attitude" is a cross between Isaac Hayes and Chic with barely perceptable vocals and a heavily distorted bass line & the final track, a live acoustic version of "Once Around The Block" recorded for Radio Luxembourg, is thick with swirling filters and tons of reverb.

Eboman - Sampling Madness 2 - Bounce To Diss E.P. XLEP 124
A journey through the dance music scene mid-1997 in the first track alone, metal guitars, hip-hop beats and blippy electro, from down-tempo to acid-tasctic breakbeat. The other five tracks trundle between Trip-hop and Big Beat to a lesser effect.

Empirion - Narcotic Influence XLT 72
Techno with guts, a dark and moody track speeding along with a dirty 303 line and a vocal from the moral majority.

Doop - Doop (on City Beat parent) CBE 774
A 20s Charleston based novelty house record snubbed by those on the wrong end of a humotomy. A huge hit, ensuring a short lifespan and immediate ridicule to any one illicitly trying to play it, anywhere.

House Of Pain - Jump Around XLT 43
Aw, you know this one, it's the one that goes 'Jump around/Jump up jump up and get down', truly inspirational(!). Released as a double header with "Top O' The Morning".

Liquid - Sweet Harmony XLS ??/XLS 65
The original release was a cheesed-up rave-a-thon from the chemical haze of the rave scene borrowing heavily from the house classics "Someday" and "Strings Of Life". Updated and re-released in '95 with fresh house mixes.

The Prodigy - Poison/Out Of Space/One Love
Tricky to isolate one single so here's three at random (sort of). "Poison" hit the trip-hop boom just as it was about to kick. After spending six months on the album the track still sounded as fresh as ever when released as a single in its own right. "Out Of Space", the first Prodigy track I bought - hard dance with a sense of mischief, I think the blippy hook and boings clinched it for me. "One Love" a master stroke and one in the eye for those in the dance community writing the band off as past it, best mix: the full original version.

SL2 - On A Ragga Tip XLT 29/XLR 29
A monster track from the midst of the rave scene, ragga vocals, ska piano and breakbeats-a-go-go. This too was re-released, in spring '97, with a naff happy hardcore remix and a house mix which was barely recognisable as a version of the track.

Slacker - Scared XLT 84
A speed garage stormer in the same vein as Armand Van Helden's remix of Tori Amos' "Professional Widow". More paranoid generation-X narcotic samples too.

Subliminal Cuts - Le Voie Le Soleil XLT 53/XLS ??
Patrick Prins' alias and together with the Way Out West remix a house classic still taking a place in many DJs all-time Top 10s. Yet another XL disc to be remixed and re-released, this was 1996's offering.

Winx - Hypnotizin' XLT 71
Next to "Higher State Of Consciousness" Josh Wink's most commercially successful track. More 303, more breakbeats, a touch of analogue keyboard and heavy filtering of the vocal refrain 'Hypnotizin''.

For release details, a full roster of 'in house' artists & a
complete history of the label, follow the logo to XL's home.